NIGERIAN Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has tasked the incoming administration of President Goodluck Jonathan on the need to frontally and holistically address critical problems affecting the country's economic development.

NACCIMA President, Dr Ademola Ajayi, who threw this challenge at a monthly press briefing in Lagos, said that the association expected the in-coming government to resolve all controversies delaying the implementation of the 2011 budget, and ensure that subsequent annual budgets give more priority to capital spending than recurrent expenditure, especially the huge cost of governance.

Ajayi further charged all elected political office holders at federal and state levels to direct their energies towards the construction of local refineries and provision of infrastructure, under the principle of Public-Private-Partnership, adding that such would fast-track the advancement of Nigerian Economy towards the desired growth path.

He said: "We are concerned that in spite of public outcry and repeated reminders, the issue of national budget is yet to be satisfactorily resolved. We wish to express our disappointment that while we understand that President Goodluck Jonathan did actually review the estimates downward, for the National Assembly in certain grey areas, the National Assembly went ahead to increase its allocation by over 100 per cent in the 2011 federal budget.

"We, therefore, wish to counsel that the President should insist and return the NASS approved 2011 Budget to the National Assembly for a review. We are here to repeat once again that the present high cost of governance has been responsible for the lopsided pattern of expenditure, with recurrent expenditure taking about 70 per cent of total budget."

The NACCIMA boss continued: "We also support the encouragement of local refining of crude oil to make Nigeria a net exporter of refined products within the next four years. This will generate jobs, (through) industrial clusters of service industries that will accelerate production of petrochemical products for local and export markets.

"This will also save the country the over N600 billion annual subsidy spent on importation. In addition, issuing of licences to own oil blocks could be tied to setting up of refineries, while licensing for local refineries should be tied to oil blocks for Nigerian refiners as funding and investment cost are rather large."

Stating that the development of transportation infrastructure still remained a top expectation of stakeholders in the real sector, he advised government to intensify more efforts in ensuring improvement in integrated transportation system that will connect roads, rails, airports and seaports with major cities and industrial estates.

According to him, the system will ensure that they feed into the rural areas so as to improve evacuation of farm produce to the market as well as to industrial production sites. This will also reduce the well-known urban drift currently noticed among job seekers.

Commending the efforts of the present regime so far towards decisively dealing with problems associated with electricity generation and distribution, Ajayi implored the new administration to sustain the current steady progress for quick delivery of reforms in the power sector.

According to him, we have no choice but to continue to canvass the issue of power supply to government because of its vital importance as a driving force to other key sectors of the national economy.

Though Ajayi noted with delight the intervention funds for agriculture, he said much effort needed to be put in place to for the country to become self-sufficient in food.